Profile: Ruth Coppinger (AAA-PBP)

Ruth Coppinger was elected as a TD in 2014 in a byelection called by the resignation of Patrick Nulty. She joined her colleague Joe Higgins TD. Coppinger was previously a schoolteacher and a member of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland. She was a councillor for the Socialist Party on Fingal County Council from 2004 until 2014. She contested the introduction of the household charge and the subsequent property tax. Since elected Coppinger has campaigned on the need to abolish the water charges and to repeal the eighth amendment. She is now a member of the newly-formed Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit Alliance. – SARAH BARDON